With considerable anxiety as to what state he might find the body of the pauper in, Mr. Phipps proceeded towards the place where he had left it; and his astonishment may be better conceived than described, as he himself would have said, when he found that old Digges, crutch, wallet, and all, had vanished from the spot, leaving no trace or vestige behind by which he could guess how, when, or in what direction, they had disappeared! The editor rubbed his eyes and looked again-examined the ditch for some extent-searched and searched--but all in vain. There lay the branches and the leaves, but the beggar and all his belongings were assuredly gone!

With his arms thrown behind him and his chin sunk upon his breast, in deep cogitation, the amazed editor once more turned his steps homewards; but scarcely had he reached the end of the lane, when his reverie was rudely disturbed by feeling the heavy hand of Redburn the constable laid upon his shoulder, and receiving an imperative summons to attend that official to the magistrate's, without delay. He offered an explanation-for the triumph of Potts soon disclosed the mystery of his arrest-but without success; for where reason might have listened, prejudice was deaf; so, denouncing his unlucky stars and his own folly, he relinquished the vain endeavour, and resigned himself to the evil he could not avoid.

When, after waiting some time, the party were introduced into the presence of the magistrate, Mr. Phipps again proffered his explanation, and was listened to with every reasonable disposition to believe; but as he could not make his mind to expose his motives for delaying to give information of the death of the pauper and for concealing the body, his explanation was unsatisfactory, and his conduct continued to appear quite unaccountable. The money, too, which he did not deny having taken from the beggar's wallet, was still in his waistcoat pocket; and, altogether, strange and absurd as it appeared, the magistrate began to fear there was nothing for it but to commit him. Unwilling, however, to do anything hastily, lest he should expose himself to ridicule by his precipitation, the worthy justice

desired the party to wait till he had taken his breakfast, and had time to deliberate on the course he should pursue; and, in order to insure himself against any unpleasant consequences, he sent for a Mr. Wilkes, who lived hard by, and who had formerly been in the commission, resolving to be guided by his advice.

"Digges!" said the gentleman when he heard the story, "why, if I am not much mistaken, I saw Digges standing at my back-door just now, as I passed to come to you. Send one of your servants to inquire if he has not been there."

It was quite true. Digges not only had been there, but was there still, and willingly accompanied the servant to prove his identity.

All he knew about the matter," he said, when he was interrogated, "was, that from long fasting and over fatigue, he had been seized with a sudden faintness in Ivy Lane, as he was making for the town, where he had intended to pass the night; that he did not know how long he lay there, but that, on recovering his consciousness, he had found himself strewed over with leaves and branches; and that as soon as he was able, he had got up and crawled towards the nearest houses; where, when the people rose in the morning, they had given him some breakfast; but that, missing the money out of his wallet, he had proceeded to Mr. Wilkes, with the intention of asking that gentleman's advice."

Here was an end of the murder: but the imputation of the robbery might have clung to poor Mr. Phipps to the end of his days, had it not been for a paper found in his room, all ready prepared for the press, wherein he detailed the circumstance of his discovering the pauper's body, the amount of money in his wallet, and all other particulars, only stating that the event happened on Wednesday morning instead of on Tuesday night. His motive was penetrated; and the poor editor escaped with no worse chastisement for his folly, than the ridicule of his neighbours, and the triumphant jibes and jeers of the rival journalist, whom it furnished with a weapon of offence and defence, and an inexhaustible fund of raillery and sarcasm, to the end of the chapter.

The History of Herodotus: a new English Version. By George Rawlinson, M. A., assisted by Col. Sir Henry Rawlinson, K. C. B., and Sir J. G. Wilkinson, F. R. S., in four volumes. Vol. 1. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1859.

It is with pleasure, that we welcome an American re-print of this noble work, the product of the latest and most thorough English scholarship. The style and appearance of this first volume, are in the highest degree creditable to the well-known standing of the publishers. Rawlinson's Herodotus will be the standard authority for all students of the Father of History. The plan adopted in this, has been to illustrate the text of the historian by the light of all the recent discoveries in hieroglyphical and cuneiform research, so that we shall be enabled to speak with certainty hereafter in regard to those points in the history of Assyria and Babylonia whereof Herodotus himself spoke, but doubtfully, though truthfully; so far as he knew. And all those who reverence the great teachers of men will rejoice to learn, as they may from this translation, how completely the fair fame of Herodotus is vindicated by every additional light thrown upon his statements. It is no very long time ago, that the Father of History was looked upon, even by scholars, as a liar of the first magnitude, of whom Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type. So few were our sources of information in regard to the times of which Herodotus wrote; so shadowy and unsubstantial were the empires of which he had left almost the only record, at all elaborated. so completely had the fabrications of Clesias possessed the minds of men, that we were quite content to value He rodotus merely for the delicious Ionic in which he wrote. Learned men spoke with contempt of the want of arrangement, and the entire absence of critical skill displayed in his narrative; quite overlooking the facts that Herodotus was, literally, a pioneer in the art of Greek prose composition, and that his birth and long residence in an Ionic colny, were hardly fitted to supply that

The credulity of Herodotus is even yet a stock subject of ridicule. His present translator does not attempt to deny this element of character in the historian; but his defence of it is so fair and reasonable, that we cannot do better than quote his words:

"The true point for consideration is, how far his work has been injured by the defect in question-to what extent it has disqualified him for the historian's office. Now, the credulity of Herodotus, in matters of religion, amounts to this: he believed in the prophetic inspiration of the oracles-in the fact that warnings are given to men through prodigies and dreams; and in the occasional appearance of the gods on earth in a human form. He likewise, holds strongly the doctrine of a divine Nemesis, including therein, not only retribution or the visible punishment of presumption and other sins, but also jealousy, or the provocation of divine anger by mere greatness and prosperous fortune. How do these two lines of belief affect his general narrative, and how far do they detract from its authenticity? With regard to the former class of supernatural phenomena, it must be observed in the first place, that they are, for the most part, mere excrescences, the omission of which leaves the historic narrative intact, and which may, therefore, if we like, be simply put aside when we are employed in tracing the course of events recorded by our author. Omit the swarming of the snakes in the suburbs of Sardis, and the flocking of the horses from their pastures to eat them before the capture of that city, and the capture itself-nay, even the cir cumstances of the capture-are untouched by the omission. This cannot be said of the oracles, or of the dreams, but even if we are skeptical altogether as to the prophetic power of the oracles, or as to any divine warning given to the heathen in dreams, (and Mr. Rawlinson is not skeptical on these points,) we may still believe that events happened as he states them; explaining, for instance, the visions of Xerxes and Ar

tabanus, by a plot in the palace, and the oracles concerning Salamis by the foresight of Themistocles."

It may also be observed, that we should bear in mind, the strongly religious character of Herodotus, tending in that age and country to superstition, and the general tone of his mind in regard to all things claiming to be of supernatural origin. Writers of far greater intellectual enlightenment than Herodotus, and living in the full knowledge of the modern Christian world, have not hesi tated to record, with a faith as implicit as the Greek's, prodigies for which they cannot advance the same simple causes that satisfied him. So profound a historian as Mariana, has not scrupled to describe, in elegant Latin, the appearance of the blessed apostle, St. James, in the front of the Christian battle, at Navas de Tolosa; yet no critic can affect to look with contempt, either on the intellect or on the authority of Mariana. And every American history still repeats with entire credulity, the mythical story of the Indian Chief, who deliberately aimed at Washington seventeen times on the day of Braddock's defeat, and seventeen times failed to shoot him.

Among the essays in the present volume, perhaps the most interesting is, that on the Assyrian Empire. The labours of Rawlinson, Layard and Botta, as well as the reports of all travellers in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, have been laid under contribution to furnish the material for this essay. The reader cannot but be astonished at the completeness of the discoveries made within the last fifteen years; there have been found inscriptions containing correct and regular lists of the Assyrian kings; accounts of their conquests and enterprizes, both in peace and war; records of their revenues; lists of the subject nations; and decrees, affording glimpses of the internal organization of the monarchy. This seems to have resembled in a great measure the Austrian or British empire of the present day; rather an agglome ration of nations and races than the absorption and assimilation of many peoples by one dominant race.

The art of the Assyrians, as exhibited in their sculpture, shows a decidedly progressive tendency; infinitely removed from the perfection of the Greek art, it was yet greatly in advance of the Egyptian, which had remained stationary and conventional. It is to be remembered, that this superiority of Assyrian art appears only in the remains of the sculpture; for the architecture of the nation, so far as it is possible to judge of it by descriptions, and the remains of the gre t palaces on the banks of the Tigris, was, on the whole, inferior in

grandeur to that of the Egyptians. Such as Assyrian art was, it seems to have been entirely national and indigenous.

"If it be added to this," says Sir H. Rawlinson, "that the buildings of the Assyrians show them to have been well acquainted with the principle of the arch, that they constructed acqeducts and drains-that they knew the use of the lever and the roller-that they understood the art of inlaying, enamelling and overlaying with metals, and that they cut gems with the greatest skill and finish, it will be apparent that their civilization equalled that of almost any ancient country, and that it did not fall immeasurably behind the boasted achievements of the moderns. With much that was barbaric still attaching to them-with a rude and inartificial government, savage passions, a debasing religion, and a general tendency to materialism, they were, towards the close of their empire, in all the arts and appliances of life, very nearly on a par with ourselves; and thus their his tory furnishes a warning-which the records of nations constantly repeatthat the greatest material prosperity may co-exist with the decline, and herald the downfall of a kingdom."

Mr. Rawlinson's translation seems to us, at least as good as any other English version we have seen; and, while much of the charm of the historian disappears in a translation, the general spirit and fidelity of Mr. Rawlinson's work gives as fair a representation of Herodotus as can well be looked for in English.

We feel assured that there will be no delay in the publication of the remaining volumes; and this complete edition of a great work, will soon be placed within the means of every scholar.

It is not difficult to perceive, indeed, it is quite impossible NOT to perceive that the collection of these poems, and the composition of the biography which introduces them, has been with the editor a labor of love. Mr. Mitchel's devotion to the literature, no less than to the political interests of his country, his generally rare scholarship, and his special minute acquaintance with the ancient poets of Ireland and their productions-all pointed him out as the proper person to arrange the works, and prepare the life of JAMES CLARENCE MANGAN. This author (hitherto comparatively unknown beyond the limits of his

native land,) is regarded by Mr. Mitchel as the representative poet of Ireland. Nearly an entire fourth of the volume consists of an "Irish Anthology," giving most beautiful and striking renditions into modern English of a number of the songs of love and war, (many of them gushes of passionate emotion, intensified by despairing grief,) which were poured forth by the knighty cavalier, or by the humbler peasant in his cot, during some indefinite period of that far past. when Erin was a free Nationality. These lays possess an inherent power and pathos, which should make them almost as interesting to the gen eral reader as to the student of Irish literature and antiquities.

Mangan's translations from the chier German poets are also admirable. They are, it is true, as un-literal as possible, but the spirit of the original, its very innermost heart and life have been caught, so that a result is produced not dry, correct, formal and marrowless, but glowing with the blood, and vital with the sinewy strength and freshness of the German models. We use the term "models," because it really seems to us that in the majority of instances, Mangan has looked to the poets whose works he translates, rather for certain main clews of thought, which he amplifies, not unfrequently in wholly new directions, than for the furnishing of definite art-products, which he endeavors to transport bodily to an alien soil, and set up before the eyes of a foreign people.

His merit far transcends, therefore, the merit of ordinary translators. In re-producing the ballads of Uhland, Tieck and Goëthe especially, Mangan has really composed new poems of his

own.

The productions he professes to derive from the Ottoman, and other Eastern languages. are, to our taste, the most characteristic and pleasing of his works. These are, doubtless, completely original, and yet how thoroughly steeped in the hues of Oriental genius; Hafiz and his contemporaries might have written them, and not one, we conscientiously believe, could have written them better.

Who, meanwhile, was James Clarence Mangan? When and where did he ive, with whom did he associate, what were his position, circumstances, and final fate? These questions are fully answered, (and a mournful answer it is,) in the biographical sketch by Mr. Mitchel.

The rank of Mangan, like that of his famous countryman Tom Moore, was not aristocratic. Of his parentage, little is known beyond the bare facts that his

father, James Mangan, was a native of Limerick County, and that in 1801, he was married to Catharine Smith, of Fishamble-street, Dublin. In the same street, and in 1803, JAMES CLARENCE MANGAN was born, his father being then a shop-keeper of the grocer class, and unfortunate in his business.

"Those who knew Clarence Màngan," Mr. Mitchell says, "in later days, had a vague sort of knowledge that he had a brother, a sister, and a mother still living; some of whom survived him, and that their scanty sustenance depended, at least, partly upon him.”

"In one of the dreariest quarters of Dublin, called Derby-Square,' was a boy's school. Here Mangan received what scholastic training he ever had. Then, for seven years, he laboured as copyist in a scriveners office-at a weekly salary-a mechanical employment, which had one advantage for himhis mind could wander. Eye and finger once steadily set to their task, the soul might spread her wings, and soar beyond the spheres.

"After that, for two or three years, he gained his own living, and main tained his wretched household as an attorney's clerk.

"At what age he devoted himself to this drudgery, at what age he left it, or was discharged from it, does not appear, for his whole biography documents are wanting, the man having never for one moment imagined that his poor life could interest any surviving human being."

Never was there a literary Pariah more hopeless, deserted and miserable. Yet, his biographer is careful to remark, that although he may be associated with such men as RICHARD SAVAGE and EDGAR POE, in regard to his dissipations and his wretchedness, no malignity of temper, no base dishonesties were ever charged upon him. If his will was weak, (and who, situated as Mangan was, could-unless extraordinarily gifted-retain the complete integrity of his moral volition,) the poet's heart seems to have been kept pure and noble to the last.

He was shy and sensitive, with exquisite sensibilities and fine impulses; eye, ear and soul, open to all the beauty, glory, and music of the heavens and the earth; humble and unexacting, craving nothing in the world but "celestial glorified life and seraphic love, and a home among the immortal gods, (that's all,) and he was eight or ten years scribbling deeds, pleadings and bills in chancery!"

Even at this time, and under such (to him) depressing circumstances, MANGAN was devoted to his favourite studies, among which, "the exploration of those